Kentucky National Guard’s new adjutant general received an overview about Operation UNITE during a visit to London on Tuesday, January 14.

Brig. Gen. Haldane “Hal” B. Lamberton spoke to UNITE President/CEO Nancy Hale and Deputy Director Tom Vicini, as well as officials from many agencies involved with counter-drug operations in partnership with the Kentucky National Guard. These agencies include Appalachia HIDTA, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Forest Service, and Kentucky State Police.

General Lamberton, who served more than 35 years in uniform, was sworn in as Kentucky’s 53rd adjutant general on December 10.

He will command the nearly 8,000 military members of the Kentucky Army and Air National Guard, and will oversee the statewide Department of Military Affairs, Kentucky Emergency Management, the Appalachian and Bluegrass Challenge Academies, and Bluegrass Station in Avon, Kentucky.

An infantryman by trade, Lamberton had five operational deployments, to include service in Honduras, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Germany and Iraq.

Lamberton was commissioned through the Reserves Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program at the University of Kentucky in May 1986. He earned a degree in psychology from UK and earned a Masters degree in strategic studies from the Army War College in June 2009. He is Ranger-qualified, as well as Air Assault and Airborne.

His last command position in the Kentucky National Guard before retirement was commander of the 238th Regiment in Greenville, Kentucky. He has received the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Master Parachutist wings with a combat star, the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star.